The Ghosts the Empire Made
by JaymondQ
Summary: After the Empire falls a group of deserters must escape the shadow of the Empire and make an identity for themselves in a galaxy that is no longer familiar to them
1. Chapter 1

_Loading Bay C_

1 year after the Rebel's decisive victory against the Imperials on Endor, the Imperials make their final stand on the desert planet of Jakku. With both the Sith Lord Emperor Palpatine and his apprentice Darth Vader killed aboard the Second Death Star, a power vacuum has led to infighting and a lack of leadership. What would have been a decisive victory in the Empire's prime has become a battle of attrition, a battle the Empire is slowly losing, while on the fringe of battle Imperials rush to destroy any important information in downed Star Destroyers. Stormtroopers are given orders to destroy any computers deemed too important in order to ensure Imperial secrets don't fall into Rebel hands. While some soldiers carry out their orders, some are beginning to question where their own loyalties lie…

 **Aimee**

Aimee pushed another explosive onto the wall and twisted to prime it. Any Imperial could see that Jakku was a lost cause, and it surprised Aimee that it took them so long to make the call. She silently thanked the Force, what little she knew of it, that she wasn't one of the Stormtroopers on the ground being mindlessly thrown into the desert. She kicked her helmet along with her as she set the charges, not able to bring herself to put it back on. There was too much screaming, too much of having to listen to her friends being mowed down by Rebels, or whatever they called themselves now, desperately screaming for backup that may never come. She was on edge, and the hard step she heard behind her set her off. She whipped around quickly, leveling her E-11 blaster rifle at the chest of her would-be assailant.

"What the hell Aimee?"

Aimee let out a nervous chuckle and ran her body-gloved hand through her sweat-soaked hair. Her Scout Trooper friend Serina pulled off her helmet and placed it on the floor next to Ally's.

"With reflexes like that, you should have been the Scout Trooper, Quick Shot. Maybe even a sniper."

"We both know you were always faster."

"No shame in being second best."

"Are you saying that because you mean it, or because you're still the better person in that equation?"

Serina punched Aimee playfully in the arm, but enough that it still made her jump. Aimee tried to laugh it off awkwardly, but she was jumpy from the last few months, they all were.

"You could easily be a Bounty Hunter though."

"Who knows what with everything that's happening out there?"

Serina closed her eyes and breathed out sharply, blowing a few loose strands of hair out of her face.

"You're telling me, they still want all Scout Troopers to be on call to support the AT-ATs when they make their next move on the Rebel encampment," She noticed the helmet discarded by her friend's feet and motioned towards it, "what gives with that?"

Aimee looked at her helmet and dropped her shoulders, "I can't do it anymore, Serina, and I can't listen to all those people out there dying."

Serina quickly moved to console her defeated friend, wrapping her arms around her.

"How can you stand this Serina?"

Aimee watched her friend who she'd known since the Academy's face darken. Her sharp features looked more drawn out and she stared directly at Aimee before triple checking they were alone and no one would sneak up on them.

"I'm not." Serina was incredibly close. "Meet me in Loading Bay C in 45 minutes, we have a way out of this."

"I don't understand Serina, what are you talking about?"

"I have a way off this planet and a way to get away from the Empire."

"You're talking about desertion, you can't possibly think-"

"That I'll get away with this? What do you think is going to happen? Do you think Vader is going to come back from the dead to execute us for treason? The Empire is being dragged into their grave kicking and screaming, don't let them drag you down with them."

With that Serina released Aimee and put her helmet back on.

"45 minutes Aimee, please be there."

Her words echoed in Aimee's head even as the echo from her footsteps died off.

 **Hadar**

Hadar slammed into the metal sheet shoulder first to avoid the hail of blaster fire concentrated on where he was a minute ago. He gripped his A280C and prepared to fire back. If this were any other war his commanding officer would ask him where his Imperial issue E-11 Blaster Rifle was, and make him down 50 push-ups during the battle to make an example to everyone. "Your E-11 will save you even if every Jedi came back and attacked you at once" he would always say. His E-11 couldn't save him from a Deflector Shield malfunction in the middle of an orbital bombardment.

Hadar stood up from cover and fired into a few Rebels who had dared to get close to him and braved another look at the carnage before him. The desert, empty a few days ago, was now littered with corpses, both sentient and mechanical. The Empire was losing, and it was apparent now more than ever.

A modified Astromech droid came careening around Hadar's cover and leveled a crude blaster attachment at his head. He kicked the Astromech over out of disgust and it made a pathetic thump when it hit the ground. It screeched at Hadar, who responded in kind with a blaster shot to the droid's underside, and after a small explosion the Droid went silent.

While he silently celebrated to himself he felt a forceful tug at the back of his armor and before he knew it he had been hoisted up above a group of sneering Rebels, all with blasters pointed at him. He was dropped into the middle of the ring and saw his massive kidnapper, a Wookie, crying out in victory.

"You're our prisoner now," said a particularly ugly Ishi Tib. It looked like one of his eye stalks had been chewed off by a rather large and rather ferocious animal.

"What do you have to say to that, you Imperial swine?"

"I'd say I guess you didn't plan on a falling AT-AT ruining your plan."

The group of Rebels looked to the sky as Hadar launched himself at the Wookie's legs, trying to take it down. Instead, he slammed into the shin bone of the Wookie with his skull, and was then kicked back into the circle, with the Wookie bringing his fists down on his chest.

He wheezed and grasped his dented breast plate.

"That…seemed better…in my head…"

The Ishi Tib laughed cruelly and went to bring his rifle butt down on the trooper's head when a green bolt whizzed by and struck the alien in the chest, flipping him backwards. A squad of Shadow Troopers uncloaked and quickly dispatched the crowd with their heavy blasters. The Wookie tried to charge Hadar's new allies but he mustered enough strength to grab a Rebel's DH-17 and fire off a shot at his leg. The Wookie fell over and the Shadow Troopers surrounded him, making damn well sure he was dead.

One of the Troopers extended his hand towards the downed Stormtrooper and pulled him to his feet as another rushed to support him.

"Awfully convenient, don't you think?"

"We're coming around to save as many people from this Rebel scum that we can. Orders are to take any injured personnel back to base."

"Why would they order us back to base if they're going to blow it, do they plan on blowing the weapons factory with a bunch of wounded in it?"

The Shadow Troopers looked amongst themselves and the tallest one, the leader Hadar supposed, removed his helmet.

"We're rounding up anyone we can that's injured and we're getting them away from this battle and away from the Empire."

"Are you insane?! You're telling me you're rounding up injured people and then dragging them off to desert with you? What are you looking to gain and what makes you think I won't report this?"

The unmasked Shadow Trooper looked like he was growing impatient, "The Empire is leaving the injured out here to die, and we have reports that no one on the ground is getting off this ground in Imperial hands that hasn't already."

"You're basing your desertion off of rumors? What if they're not true? What if-"

As if on cue the comms in Hadar's helmet exploded with activity. Everyone was talking about an unbelievable event across the ridge. He threw off his helmet to clear his mind for a second and looked where everyone else on the battlefield was looking, and all the color drained from his skin.

He looked into the sky as the Super Star Destroyer, the last Super Star Destroyer, the _Ravager_ , entered the atmosphere. Even as the fire of the atmospheric entry faded the bottom of the behemoth still burned. He watched it slowly turn and finally crash onto the desert world below. He watched the wreckage burn as long as he could before the dust cloud enveloped the wreckage. Everyone around him seemed as dumbfounded as he was. He only needed to turn to the 3 men, all silent, bowing their heads, and they knew.

The Empire was dead, and it was time to leave.

 **Serina**

Reports coming in from all over were frantic, but at the heart of each one was a singular message: The Executor Class Dreadnought _Ravager_ had been crashed into the surface of Jakku. There was no count yet on casualties, but whatever Star Destroyers were still in the sky weren't transmitting anything and dropping into the atmosphere, using their tractor beams to claw any ships that went near them into the sand below. Serina had no idea if the soldiers in the growing ship graveyard that was the front line were being considered a lost cause by the Imperials, but she didn't have time to rescue any others. With any luck Gasus and his Shadow Troopers had managed to pull someone towards Loading Bay C, but no matter what they were leaving in 30 minutes.

She rushed down the hallway, gripping the small pistol in her hand hard enough to turn her knuckles as white as her armor. There was a path she had set up for herself, with enough twists and turns to throw off anyone who might be suspicious of her while also getting her where she needed to be in a timely manner. It was a ragtag plan thrown together in a few hours by a group of tired traitors, but it was the only plan they had. If the rumblings of a cease-fire on Coruscant had any truth, that just made their need to escape more urgent.

She turned a final corner and saw exactly what she had hoped not to: an orange-pauldroned Stormtrooper Commander arguing with the woman she had left to guard the door. She collected her breath and walked up to the angry officer.

"Hello, Commander, is there anything I can help with here?"

He turned to her and began walking towards her, "You can begin by telling me why you aren't with the rest of group."

"I was sent to this loading bay to see if there were any spare bikes that we could use. Ours are in pretty bad shape what with the war and all."

"Why didn't he just check the manifest? We pay these people good credits to make sure that thing is correct."

"Right, but he wanted to check and see if any had been hidden away, what by traitors or the like."

"Traitors? Do you know something I don't? What's your number soldier, and you! Open this door-"

With his back to Serina she drew quick and aimed her gun at the Commander's head, but the bolt that hit him in the back and left him splayed out on the floor wasn't hers. She turned and saw Aimee, helmeted and holding a smoking E-11.

"He was going to blow your cover."

"You don't have to explain yourself to me."

Aimee sighed and looked down at the body of the Commander.

"Well I guess there's no going back from this, is there."

"Not at all."

"He was a bit of a wastoid anyway."

 **Aimee**

Serina, Aimee, and the girl guarding the entrance all entered the Loading Bay to see four Imperial Troop Transports, the side compartments filled with various pieces of equipment pilfered from the battlefield or stolen from the armory. Amongst the gathered group was four Troopers in the back, three Shadow Troopers and one Stormtrooper with a damaged breastplate and an A280C leaning against the crate he was next to. He made eye contact with Aimee and nudged to one of the Shadow Troopers and pointed towards her. The Shadow Trooper simply shrugged and the man went back to looking the crowd over.

Everyone snapped to attention when Serina took her place in front of the assembled soldiers. The girl who had been guarding the door was now standing next to her, unhelmeted and stern. She looked to Serina, Serina looked back and nodded, and the girl took her place amongst the crowd.

"Hello everyone. We all know why we're here so I'm not going to sit here and explain that. Nor, will I sit here and introduce every single one of you, because, and I'll be honest, I'm not sure if all of us will make it. The only people you need to know right now are the ones in charge. My name is Serina Grainer, and I will be you're the person in charge of this operation until we get to freedom. My partners in crime are the tall Shadow Trooper named Gasus and the woman you saw guarding the door on the way in, named Sturas. Our plan is to make it to a Lambda shuttle we have stowed away on the far side of the planet, hopefully far enough away from the battle for us to escape unseen. We have four Troop Transports, three for transporting us and one for transporting supplies."

"Won't the Imperials come after us if they realize what we're doing?" The question came from a tall man in dirty armor, someone no doubt picked off the battlefield.

"Most likely. Which is where our plan comes in. This base has been deemed unimportant and because of that we're all getting moved out. In 20 minutes from loading docks A and B all the rest of the troops will be moved out in transports much like these. We're going to follow them about halfway through the ride to the front line and then break off, and before you ask no they will not be able to track us. We've spent the last few hours painstakingly taking out any tracers this equipment, these Transports, or the shuttle may have."

"How did we get a Lambda shuttle exactly?"

"There was one stolen by a band of Rebels. Our Shadow Trooper friends went out to meet them before they came to get you, took care of them, and reported the shuttle as destroyed. Imperial brass is up to their chins in a war they don't know if they can win to investigate if one shuttle went down when they have cruisers going down at an even faster rate. Any other questions?"

The room was silent. These people assembled had their doubts about being on the Imperial side before going into this, even before early planning stages. The last few hours had served only to show them they were on a losing side, and they wanted to get out before it got worse.

"Excellent! We'll be doing this in a diamond formation once we break off with the equipment truck in the middle alongside a soldier transport." Serina clapped her hands together and pointed to the tallest Shadow Trooper. "Gasus. You're driving the equipment transport, alongside Sturas." Aimee traced her finger to the girl who had been standing next to Serina.

"The rest of Gasus's squad will be in the lead transport alongside Aimee over there and the new guy they picked up."

"Hadar," said the man with the dented breast plate, "the name is Hadar."

"Excellent Hadar, you've got your assignment. The last two groups are divided up by platoon already who have already been briefed. I will be leading this charge from my personal bike and scouting ahead to make sure nothing goes wrong. We've all got our positions, it's time to defect from a dying galactic power." She mounted her Speeder Bike and looked towards Aimee, her voice crackling through the comms in Aimee's ear:

"No pressure right?"


	2. Chapter 2

A Hitch in the Plan

 **Sturas**

The four transports rumbled slowly alongside the small caravan as the sounds of battle came through, muffled by the thick transport walls. Every so often the transport would shake or shudder and she would see Gasus clench up. He was a Shadow Trooper, he wasn't used to the shakiness of it all. Sturas knew it all too well. Top of her class in the Imperial Academy, on track to be one of the best TIE pilots before an injury took her out of the program and landed her as a standard rank-and-file soldier. "Not suicidal enough for the Suicide Sleds" her friends would joke, and she would laugh. She wished they were still here to laugh with her.

The rocking of the cabin put Sturas at ease as she looked out at the desert landscape. There was a deep rumble and the shifting of the transport, Gasus clenched up again as he steered the transport.

"Transport got taken out, the line had to move to get around the wreckage."

She nodded in understanding. She knew Gasus was talking mostly to calm his nerves and she wasn't going to say anything to him. She knew she was just as nervous as him in her own way. If the Empire won, slim as that chance was, then they were in big trouble. They were, after all, deserters. She wasn't even sure they'd be welcome in a world where the Empire lost. For all Sturas knew they were going to parade every Trooper down to maintenance men through the streets of Coruscant before executing them all for war crimes, and she didn't think she could honestly blame them.

Something zipped by the front of the transport and Gasus gripped the controls tighter.

"Time to make our move?" She was already on her way to the turret.

Gasus nodded and laughed weakly. "Here goes nothing I guess."

 **Serina**

It had been 5 minutes since Serina had told everyone to break off and things seemed to be going well so far, almost too well. She called everyone on their comms to make sure nothing was too off.

"Hadar here, we're all good here, no need to worry about us."

"Gasus and Sturas here, we got nothing but guns and ammo back here."

"This is Sam from transport 3, we're here as well."

Nothing from transport 4.

Serina tried multiple times with no response, but the transport was still following the layout of the plan.

"Does anyone have any info on transport 4? Can someone please help them out?"

Sam chimed in on the comms and said he would go out to check. She rushed into position behind the back door of transport 4 as Sam got out from the top of his transport and jumped over. He knocked on the roof a few times, then gave Serina a look of confusion and shrugged.

"Open up the top and let's see what the big deal is, this better not be a joke, because I sure ain't laughing."

Sam took off his helmet, opened the hatch, and his face went as white as his polished armor. The back door of the transport blew open, disorienting Serina as the turret whipped around and fired at Transport 3

 **Aimee**

The explosion rocked the transport and Hadar jerked the wheel off to the side. Everyone looked out the side at the burning wreck. People were panicking, Hadar was screaming into the comms and the others all looked worriedly at each other. Aimee breathed in and out sharply as she took the comms from Hadar.

"Gasus, we're too far in front to see who this transport is aiming at, who's in their sights?"

Aimee heard scrambling before Gasus picked up "It's us. They're aiming at us, I'm trying to shake them but they're locked. Serin,a fell off her bike but they've got some sort of cannon in the back, we can't go back to get her either."

That's all she needed to hear. Whatever had happened the most important thing to her just became saving her best friend.

"Hadar, get us alongside their transport, we need to draw their fire away from the gun transport."

"And forcing them to fire at us instead?"

"Just trust me, I know you don't know me, but I have a plan here."

Hadar threw up his hands and smiled.

"Dying with a plan is better than dying with no plan."


	3. Chapter 3

Escape from Jakku

 **Serina**

Serina groggily opened her eyes and tried to take in the scene around her. When her vision focused she could see the barren waste of Jakku and the burning wreck of a transport. Was that her transport? She could vaguely see the outlines of the other transports barreling off into the distance without her. She looked to her speeder, still mostly in one piece, and groaned. She trusted Aimee, but they had always said if you want something done you need to do it yourself.

She flipped her speeder and studied the damage. Nothing extensive, with enough power to get her to her friends and take care of the ones that took her out of this fight. She cycled through her comms waiting for anyone to pick up.

"Sturas here, I read you."

"Gimme a sitrep, Sturas."

"Honestly? Bad. These guys have their guns leveled at our heads and I don't know when they're going to make a move. Transport 3 is down and-"

Sturas cut out and Serina began to panic. She slammed the throttle and sped her bike up, causing it to sputter and whine. After about 10 seconds Sturas's voice came back over the comms.

"Serina, are you on the move? Your friend is doing something either incredibly dumb or incredibly smart, you need to get here ASAP."

"What's Aimee doing?"

"She's trying to board Transport 4."

Serina closed her eyes, mouthing out a prayer to the Force or anything listening. She took the speeder to full speed, the low wine now a loud screech as she went to save her friend.

 **Gasus**

Gasus supposed he should have expected this. As he tried desperately to get away from the lock the other transport had on them. As a Shadow Trooper he wasn't used to things going wrong. Assassinations planned out over a month, surgical strikes on an enemy thought over for a week. Everything that could go wrong accounted for, no room for improvisation. His team would get in, follow plan perfectly, and be out before people ever knew. Even the on-the-fly plan of taking care of any witnesses at the stolen shuttle was executed perfectly. Uncertainty terrified him, which is why the situation he was in now filled him with a kind of dread he had never felt before. Sturas had gone to the turret but he stopped her, any sudden movement from that turret would escalate the situation beyond where he wanted to take it. He just hoped someone else came up with a plan before he had to.

"And you're absolutely sure you saw Sam get on Hadar's transport when Aimee got off?"

"Yes, Gasus, I'm sure, for the third time."

More silence between the two of them. It wasn't helping Gasus's rising anxiety.

"We need to do something, Gasus."

"Sturas I would absolutely love to, but we're cut off from them completely. They can hear us over those comms, anything we plan they're going to hear."

"Anything?"

"Any-you just told Serina about Aimee."

They both looked forward, neither blinking nor saying anything.

"I'll get into the turret."

"That's a pretty good idea."

 **Aimee**

Deep breaths. That's all Aimee could think when she jumped to the top of the transport. Deep breaths as she ducked and weaved around the turret that was swinging wildly to try to get its sights on her. The other transports had fallen back and no one was firing at them, which meant that there was 2 people in on this operation. One working both turrets and one driving. Two she could work with. Deep breaths.

She unclipped her rifle and took a few potshots at the top of the vehicle. Nothing damaging, just enough to scare them. She heard yelling below and saw the hatch open. Thinking quickly, she took the thermal detonator from her armor and lobbed it into the hole. There was more screaming and clashing as Aimee accepted what was to come. She didn't mind dying if it meant Serina could live happily and away from the Empire. She smiled and closed her eyes and waited for the end to come and for the explosion to engulf the transport.

There was clanging below and a sharp scream followed by a loud explosion, but she didn't feel her body incinerate. She looked behind the transport and saw the mangled frame of a blaster cannon and a twisted smoldering corpse. She was too distracted to hear the hatch swing open behind her. Aimee felt a sharp pain in her side as she was pushed forwards into the turret, almost falling off. She grabbed the barrel and tried to pull herself up, and through tears of pain she could see a large white figure advancing rapidly towards her. Before she could clear her eyes the figure pulled her up by the hair and put its hand around her throat. She could make out what looked like a Stormtrooper helmet, but with a design painted on she had never seen before. Her vision slowly faded as the the figure's grip tightened.

 **Serina**

Serina was horrified. She knew people would die on this expedition, but she never imagined this kind of brutality. She watched her friend throw a grenade into the wayward transport and shrieked for someone to save her. For anyone to swoop in and help her, but no one had to. She saw through the open back of the transport a young Stormtrooper with armor painted in blood catch the grenade and look back at the large man driving. The large man wasted no time in throwing the kid out of the back of the moving transport, knocking the baster cannon out with him. She heard the boy scream all the way up until the explosion.

Now, the same large man stood on top of the transport, slowly choking the life out Aimee. Her bike wailed in protest up until the moment she jammed it into the frame of the transport. She climbed off the bike, disoriented but determined. She took out her thermal detonator and stuck it to the ceiling and pulled herself up onto the top. The bike's collsion had jostled the transport which threw the man off Aimee and they were both recuperating. The Stormtrooper, with the same blood painted armor, found his footing before the wheezing and sputtering Aimee could find hers and went to grab her again.

He moved towards Aimee but stopped in his tracks when he saw Serina's gun trained on his skull.

"So, you're the one who caused all this trouble."

His breaths were labored, his voice seemed distorted. The infliction was off and the pitch of his voice varied wildly from word to word.

"Why are you doing this?"

He pulled off his helmet and Serina saw why his voice sounded the way it did. There were metal cables in his neck leading to what looked like a metal lower jaw poorly concealed in synthetic skin. Every breath he took, she could see a tube in his neck pull fill with a dark liquid, it looked like somebody had done a cheap Nar Shadaa alley patch cybernetics job. His eyes looked wild as he produced a thermal detonator from his person.

"My turn."

Serina barely heard Sturas yell to get down through the her heart hammering in her ears. She slammed onto the hard metal, pulling Aimee, who had made it to her knees, down with her. She felt a large blast and an intense heat on her back, then nothing. When she opened her eyes, she looked at the large man, a blank expression on his face. His armor had been melted away on the side, as had some of the cybernetics he had installed, exposing a cracked clear casing through a melted and warped metal shell that was leaking black fluid. His arm now ended halfway to his elbow and he began coughing up the black liquid. Serina saw what looked to be the bottom portion of his arm clutching the detonator.

There was little time to act and Serina tried to capitalize. She heard Gasus saying something about coming to get her but the move to grab the detonator was almost a primal reaction to save her and her friend. Her reaction to the sharp hit the now one armed man was also equally as primal. He reared up to punch again and Serina threw a quick jab at the cracked liquid container, showering her with the disgusting smeling liquid. She heard the beeps quicken as the transport shuddered. Gasus had made it.

Gasus's transport ran up alongside transport 4 and Serina pulled Aimee across. She sat, clutching Aimee's shaking frame as she cried, and watched the man turn to look at her and fall off the transport as it blew up. She watched and made sure nothing crawled out of the wreckage until it grew to a dot on the horizon and the transport stopped.

"Why did we stop?" Her voice seemed hollow and distant.

"Ma'am, we're here."

Serina turned and saw the shuttle and broke down in tears alongside her friend.


End file.
